Point Of View And Conflict In Ernest Hemingway's The Undefeed

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Zachary White White 1
Ms. Gilroy
English 10
20 February 2014
Point-of-view and conflict in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Undefeated”
Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Undefeated” is based mainly on how the main character, Manuel Garcia is getting older and told that he is not going to be able to fight bulls anymore because he is getting older. He gets offered a spot to fight a bull but it was a fill in spot. This causes Manuel to become apprehensive because his brother died fighting a bull when he was a fill in. He ends up taking the spot anyway but is then told by his friend, Zurito (also a picador) that he is too old and not good enough to fight a bull. Later on in the story, both the reader and the other characters discover that Manuel is capable of fighting a bull until… he is horned in the chest and is defeated. Ernest Hemingway uses many different literary elements to make all of his stories more dynamic. In “The Undefeated”, he uses point-of-view to show different views and opinions of characters towards the conflicts and actions that take place. The different tones from different characters fuel the plot and the conflict that takes place.
The tones of the characters in the story motivate the plot and make the story more interesting and dynamic. These tones and the different point-of-views fuel the conflict in the story. In the beginning, Manuel Garcia’s tone was hesitant to substitute for another bull fighter because of an internal conflict that is in his memory. “I don’t like to substitute for anybody,” Manuel said. That was the way they all got killed. That was the way Salvador got killed” (Hemingway). He is torn because he wants to come back and fight a bull, but doesn’t know if he should take the substitute sp...

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... to be incompatible, in opposition, or in disagreement. Conflicts can arise in war, disagreement or mental struggle. In the short story, Garcia’s work in all of the preliminaries to the kill shows his greatness as a bull fighter. His inability to kill the bull properly that is, in an “honorable” way gives him a lower status as a bull fighter and nearly gets him killed. He has failed and is on the operating table, but he begs Zurito not to cut off his pigtail. He may be destroyed but he remains “undefeated.” This shows that Manuel still believes in himself but also shows him that he took the wrong path; he took on a challenge when his gut told him not to. Many clichés are created because of a conflict that has happened in a previous time; this action by Manuel demonstrates the cliché, “always go with your gut.” Garcia did not and it came back to haunt him in the end.

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